Death of Future Past
by NullChronicler
Summary: It's been several months since Phantom Planet, and things are finally quieting down. During a routine fight, however, Danny finds a visitor from a dark future and now must fight to save his present from the return of an old 'friend'.
1. Thus Our Story Begins

**Hello, everybody! As proof that I _can_ write fiction without OC's, I started in on this Danny Phantom title and immediately failed, as evidenced by the OC at the end of this chapter. However, I can (tentativelly) promise that this will _technically_ be the only OC in the whole story. Yeah, _riiight_.**

**In all seriousness, I would just like to state that Nickelodeon and Butch Hartman own all rights to Danny Phantom, and any other licensed characters/series that may show up are property of their respective owners. Now, without further ado...**

**Danny Phantom: Death of Future Past**

**Chapter I: Thus Our Story Begins**

_Somewhere in the Ghost Zone..._

_A crumbling throne sits in darkness behind one of the thickest doors in all of the Ghost Zone. Then, a click, and the door slides open noiselessly to admit two wisps of ethereal smoke. One condenses into a pale teenage boy with dirty blonde hair, a wrinkled coat several sizes too big for him, and a massive motorbike. The other twists into the shape of a green-skinned woman who still shows the marks of her living beauty, clad in Middle Eastern garb and hiding one side of her face with flowing black hair. As a single red eye slowly opens from the figure seated on the throne, the woman opens her mouth to speak. A withered claw waves her silent, however, and both ghosts mutely await the figure's words._

"What have you to report, Desiree?"

The green-skinned ghost tossed her raven hair behind her before answering in a seductive purr. "If you wish to reach the boy, you must strike at those he holds dear. He will protect them at all costs, we have seen it before, and you will be free to act."

"Good. Jonathan, what of my traitorous fool of a general?"

The pale teenager fidgeted for a moment, rubbing a hand across the seat of his motorcycle. "He's still locked up after the kid beat him, and could you just call me Johnny?"

"Very well, although you are demeaning yourself to be addressed as such. A final question, you said that I should target those close to the boy..."

"There are several whose death would do great harm to the boy. For _these_ two, however, he would be utterly broken."

"A sister and...a lover? Ehe he he, see how history repeats itself! Desiree, Jona..._Johnny_, go and do as I told you before, quickly!"

"Yes, of course my lord."

"Yes, soon I shall be truly lord and master of the land once more. And with my plan in motion, I shall return more powerful than those accursed Eldars could have ever imagined!"

"You shall join me soon, Daniel Fenton. Danny _Phantom_."

* * *

"Danny! Breakfast is ready!" Danny Fenton groaned as he rolled out of bed and promptly crashed to the floor. Rubbing his back, he rose shakily before another shout fully woke hiim.

"I'm up! I'm up!" Walking over to his dresser, he momentarily thought of actually opening the drawer for old times' sake, then shook his head and simply phased his arm through to grab a t-shirt. The result of an accident in his parents' lab almost two years ago, Danny had ghostly energy bonded to his very DNA, effectively making him half-ghost and granting him abilities far beyond those of a normal human.

Flight, invisibility, intangibility and ecto-energy plasma rays had been first, along with a "ghost sense" that went off whenever he was near another spectral being. In the recent months, however, he had been shocked and a little amazed to find that his powers were, in fact, growing. He had learned to split himself into multiple forms, possess another person's body by way of a process called "overshadowing", gained cryokinetic abilities, and had gained an extremely powerful attack called the Ghostly Wail. Well, technically his evil self from the future had coined the phrase, but...

"Danny! You're going to be late for school!" He groaned as he looked at the small clock next to his bed, then grabbed a pair of jeans hanging off the end of his bed and hopped downstairs while attempting to tie his shoes. Landing in a jarring crash at his sister's feet, Danny bit back a string of curses as the red-headed college freshman tried her hardest not to laugh at her kid brother.

"If it hurts so much, why don't you just fly down the stairs, or go intangible and drop straight into the kitchen?"

"And why haven't _you_ left for college yet? Mom and Dad are still getting used to the idea of me having ghost powers. I think it would be best if we take this one step at a time."

"Oh come on, Danny, Mary Celeste University is only thirty minutes away and my classes don't start for another forty-five. And if they can accept that their son is Danny Phantom, superhero ghost fighter, then I think they could get used to you dropping through the ceiling for breakfast." Jasmine Fenton, known to most as simply Jazz, rearranged her hairband and walked into the kitchen as Danny finished with his shoes and hurried to grab something to eat before rushing to school.

* * *

Casper High hadn't changed much over the summer, its long tiled hallways echoing with nearly the same voices that had greeted him for his freshman and sophomore years. The doors to the lockers still squeaked a little when someone pried them open, and the cafeteria mystery meat was as mysterious as ever. There were, however, a few things that _had _changed. One of those changes was actually hurrying up the sidewalk now.

"Morning, sleepyhead. If you had slept much later you'd have to fly to school. Actually…that's not a bad idea." The two shared a laugh as Danny hugged his recently-discovered girlfriend. Sam Manson was, to most, your typical black-obsessed Goth girl, but she was one of the two people who had known about Danny's powers from the time he had received them. Sarcastic and strong-willed, she had also proven to be the most rational of the bunch, pulling Tucker and Danny back to reason and getting them to focus on the task at hand. After hiding his growing crush for months, and nearly losing everything to an asteroid on a collision course with the Earth, he had finally worked up the nerve to officially ask her out and the two had been "going steady" ever since.

The fact that the "Disasteroid Crisis" also led to his secret identity being spread across the globe was taking a little getting used to, however.

"Hey _Fenton!_ You and your little girlfriend are gonna be late if you don't step on it!" The shining red and white sports car sped by them, Dash Baxter at the wheel.

"Well, at least he uses your real last name now." Sam pointed out. Dash and Danny had never been on what could be called the best of terms, yet the football star had become at least marginally more bearable after discovering the "loser" he picked on every day was also a world-saving superhero.

"Let's just get to school. Even my superhero status won't get me out of Lancer's detentions."

"How the heck do _we_ manage to get stuck with him every blasted _year?_ It's almost like he's following us on purpose!"

"Calm down, Sam. Hey, at least we know the guy. Oh, and if we want to get to school now we're gonna _have_ to fly. Grab on."

"Thought you'd never ask." Sam wrapped her arms around Danny's shoulders as the young man pushed off from the ground. As the buildings passed beneath them, Sam reflected on just how lucky she was. Seriously, how often do a Goth and a ghost _really_ fall in love beyond those stupid seventies B-movies?

"Uh, Sam? Not to sound rude or anything, but you're kinda choking me." Danny's wheeze broke her from her reverie and she blushed as she hurriedly relaxed her grip. As the school came into view, Sam scanned the front for any sign of Tucker. Danny's friend since who-knew-when and currently the youngest mayor in the history of Amity Park, the fourth-generation son of immigrants from Cairo tended to have some trouble handling positions of power. Seeing no Ferraris, helicopters, or gold-trimmed limousines parked near the building, Sam breathed a sigh of relief just before she felt Danny tense.

"What's wrong? Worried that Tucker's got something _really_ ridiculous planned?"

"Not that, although I wouldn't be surprised. It's my Ghost Sense, something's...there!" Sam followed Danny's pointed finger to see a neon green glow weaving among the buildings a few blocks over, and several muffled explosions filtered through the streets..

"Head to class, cover for me with Lancer."

"Nope, I'm coming. Lancer won't take it anyway, told me so _last_ time I tried."

"Come on, Sam. I'm not dragging your grades down along with me."

"Since when have you ever actually hurt my grades? I'm coming with you, that's final."

"Fine, hang on." Sam let out a squeak as the rings of energy swept across Danny's body, passing through her on the way. Still recovering from the sudden chill and the odd buzz, she wasn't prepared when he blasted off at full speed towards the disturbance. As the distance closed, the identity of the attacker became all too clear. Even through eyes narrowed against the wind, the unnatural shine of "The Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter" could be seen cleanly from several hundred yards away.

"Hey Skulker, time for your monthly beating already?"

"Be quiet, whelp! You'll scare away my prize."

"Sorry, but I'm not--huh?" Danny stopped and hung in mid-air as Skulker paused outside an alley. The spectral hunter raised an armored glove and pointed into the shadows.

"My _prey_, whelp. I quite recently discovered that, while you are certainly the most famous ghost-child, you aren't the _only_ one. You forget, I once worked for Vlad Masters and as such have expanded access into his complex."

"You got into Plasmius's computer? Hey _wait!_" Danny pushed himself in front of Skulker as the ghost continued into the alley.

"Out of the way, whelp. Yes, Technus assisted me in hacking the computer. I know all about your 'cousin' now, ghost-child."

"You're not laying a finger on Danielle, Skulker, not while I'm around." A brief squeeze reminded the halfa that Sam was still wrapped around him and they had remained a good ten feet off the ground. Dropping down to deposit Sam, Danny groaned as Skulker took the opening and shot over him into the alley.

"Grab the thermos, this shouldn't take long if he's really chasing Dani. Actually, I'm surprised she hasn't taken care of him herself." Hurrying into the alley, he was surprised as Skulker was unexpectedly blasted backward into him. Picking himself off the ground, he heard Skulker laugh and some kind of weapon charging.

"Well, whelp, you've put up a good chase and I can see you'll be defiant to the last. Good, I like a challenging hunt."

"So that's why you've never been able to get rid of Danny Phantom?" Danny grinned at the jab, but the voice clearly did _not_ belong to his 'cousin' Danielle, in reality a clone created by his former archenemy Vlad Plasmius.

"I leave the ghost-whelp alive because he's _useful,_ and he makes for a worthy test of my skills." Danny thoroughly enjoyed the irritation in Skulker's voice, and was that a bit of defensiveness?

"Yeah, _sure_, whatever. You're not so tough when you haven't fused with Technus yet." Now_ that_ got Danny's attention. The only people who knew about the future Skultech were him, Sam, Tucker, and possibly Jazz and Vlad. Well, there was Clockwork too, but the ghostly Master of Time didn't really count as a _person_, right?

"I don't know what you're talking about, child, but I know you'll be adorning my mantle soon!"

"Not if there's anything I can do about it!" Danny rammed his shoulder into the ghost hunter's back just as a cannon on his arm fired in a blaze of green and blue. He heard a high-pitched scream just before Skulker crashed to the ground. He turned and looked for the source of the sound, finding a young girl hiding next to a dumpster. He gave her a cursory glance, then felt his jaw drop about three feet as he looked again.

Snow-white hair? Check.

Eyes that glowed a neon green? Got 'em.

A black and white outfit? Check, although slightly ragged and torn in a few places.

Danielle Phantom? Not a chance.

The shape of the face was all wrong, and the hair was _way _too short and messy. She was also a bit thinner than Dani had been the last time he'd seen her. The most telling of all, however, was her outfit. She wore simply a loose black shirt with a stylized emblem of some kind on the chest, along with sturdy-looking gloves and what appeared to be some kind of armor over her fore-arms. Her pants fit a bit tighter than the shirt, but they were silver-white with a black stripe running down the outside of each leg. The pants sagged over the shoes, but they looked to be some kind of boots from what he could see.

"Uh, Skulker? I really love bursting your little fantasy, but that's not Danielle."

_"What?" _The look on Skulker's face was almost comical, but it quickly settled back into his evil smirk as he calmly said, "Well, it matters not. Your pelt will still look fine hanging from my wall." Before Danny could react, he fired his arm cannon again. Danny was blown backwards by the force of the beam and he heard another shrill scream before a much deeper one and a flash of light. He opened his eyes to find himself against the side of the dumpster and Sam corking the Fenton Thermos a few yards away.

"Well, that could have gone better. Now let's see what--oh no..." Catching sight of the girl's torn and burned clothing, he rushed over to her. As he carefully lifted her off of the ground, ice blue eyes weakly opened and a small smile tugged at the lips.

"D-D-Daddy?"

**I love cliffhangers, don't you? Well, as I've said in my other fics, the next time you'll probably hear from me is the end of May. My apologies, but college finals have that effect. Until then, check out my other two fics and maybe tell me what you think!**

**--NullChronicler--**


	2. Revealing the Future

**And I'm back! I'm really sorry to keep everyone hanging, especially after this got a massive response on only the first chapter. However, this chapter should clear a few things up and at least it doesn't end on a cliff.**

**Also, I would like to say that I changed some references at the very beginning of the first chapter, since I've decided I'm not going to make this a true crossover. The characters will be there, but I won't deal much, if at all, with other universes beyond that of DP.**

**Well, now that we've got that out of the way, just remember that I own naught of Danny Phantom, and enjoy the chapter!**

**Chapter II: Revealing the Future**

"So, how is she?" Maddie closed the bedroom door and shook her head, pointing downstairs. Danny bit back a groan and followed her into the living room, where Jazz and Jack were both engrossed in something on the TV.

"What's on, dear?" Maddie asked. Jack waved her silent as he turned up the volume.

"...telling us that the explosion, which has seemingly engulfed Jupiter's moon Titan, was equal to a detonation of the entire United States nuclear stockpile several times over. Experts so far have been unable to comment on the cause of the event, but we remain confident an answer will be found. From the Amity Park Observatory, I'm Lance Thunder!"

"Thanks Lance! Coming up..." The TV cut to mute as Jack and Jazz turned to Maddie and Danny.

"It's been all over the news all morning, Mom, I thought you'd seen it already." Jazz said.

"Oh, I've been working in the lab all morning, trying to invent a robot that might help out a little with cleaning. Although the dusting feature still brings out a buzz-saw, and I didn't even _install _a buzz-saw!"

Jack hurriedly cut in, "I, uh, I hate to interrupt, but we might have a problem. Did you hear what they said on the news?"

"Yeah, but why is some random explosion in outer space a problem?"

"Because, Danny," Jazz cut in, "Do you remember what happened the _last_ time there was a random explosion in outer space?"

"Point taken." Danny mumbled, "But shouldn't we wait until we know for sure to worry?"

"That's just it, Danny, we _do_ know for sure." Jack said, "Axion got word of this a few hours before the public, and Mr. Gray called about an hour ago. According to their sensors, the explosion contained enough ectoplasmic energy to keep the Fenton Ghost Shield running for a month." He sank back into the couch, which groaned slightly, "We have no idea what could have caused it. Heck, the readings they have of _you_ barely reach a tenth of that amount at their highest."

"Wait, Axion Labs has _readings_ on me?"

"Well, you _were_ ghost enemy number one for a while there, little brother. Anyways, I'm interested to hear about this girl you found."

"I already told you, she was being chased by Skulker, I fought with Skulker, she called me 'Daddy' and passed out."

"Yes, honey, but did she say anything _else_? Was there anything out of the ordinary about her that might help us figure out where she came from?"

"She had ghost powers, if that helps. But I know it wasn't Clockwork or she would have had a Time Medallion, this doesn't make any sense!"

"Clockwork? Who's Clockwork?"

"The Ghost Master of Time, and he _did_ send me here." The new voice made everyone in the room jump, prompting the girl floating above the stairs to collapse, midair, into a brief fit of laughter. Catching her breath, she looked around the room with a frown, then turned to Danny, "What? Didn't you tell anyone about me? You look like you're staring at a ghost or something."

"Bad pun aside, that blast from Skulker put _me_ on the ground, and it wasn't even aimed at me! We didn't think you'd be up for another few hours." Danny said, as the girl floated over to the couch and dropped down beside Jazz.

"_O-kaay_, you obviously have ghost powers like Danny--"

"That's 'cause he's my Dad!" Total silence answered her exclamation, causing her to flop back on the couch with a groan, "Look, Clockwork would get royally cheesed if I say too much about where I come from, but he said I could tell you _that_, at least. Oh, and I have a little brother named Luke, but that's not important. I'm Azurel, by the way, but everyone just calls me Az."

"That...how.._.Clockwork sent you?_ From _where?_"

"Not where, _when_. Come on, this is 2009, you've faced Dan already, you know how Clockwork does things." After looking around at the stunned family, she grinned weakly, "This _is_ 2009, right?"

"Uh, yeah, it is. Listen, why don't you start from somewhere around the beginning, because I'm totally lost here." Danny rubbed his forehead, knowing that if Clockwork were involved he would likely end up with a headache very shortly.

"It makes perfect sense, Danny. She's obviously from some future in which you had children, and Clockwork is sending her back in time for some reason, probably like how he sent you through time to stop that evil version of yourself." Neither noticed their parents shooting alarmed glances at each other, until finally Maddie cleared her throat loudly.

"Now Danny, I don't remember any 'evil version' of you in any of those stories. And I don't think you ever mentioned time-travelling either."

"Uh, sorry Mom, I didn't think it would come up again and Clockwork erased everyone's memory of the whole thing anyway, so..." He trailed off as Azurel gave an impatient groan and pushed herself off of the couch. Flipping the television back to sound, she turned up the volume until the news announcer's voice filled the room. After flipping through a few channels, she found one that was replaying the Jupiter explosion and let it run. At the end of the report, she muted the TV again and turned to the family.

"Listen, here's what Clockwork said to tell you, and this is all I'm officially allowed to say. That explosion was caused by an ancient artifact of ridiculous power falling into the hands of one _really_ whacked-out nutjob of a cheese-head. If your timeline is how ours was...will be...whatever, he comes back in about a week and glasses Amity Park."

"Glasses? What's this about a ghost wearing glasses?" Jack spoke up, his brow furrowing as he tried to follow the girl's rushed speech.

"Not glasses, _glasses_. As in, an explosion so massive that the ground melts and cools as one large sheet of volcanic glass. The only people that survive do so because their class is on a school trip and all they see is a really bright light. Look, I know this isn't much time but you have to listen to me! Vlad's coming back and he's going to destroy everything unless you're ready for him!"

"Vlad? _Plasmius?_ Wait, he comes back?" A slow nod from the girl was all that Danny got as he jumped up from his chair, "Hold on, I'm calling Tucker and Sam, they need to know about this!"

"They're at school, honey, remember?" Danny let his head hit the wall as he dropped the phone back into its receiver. Then he turned to Az.

"Alright, I know a bit of what's going on now, but I'm still confused as to what the heck I'm supposed to do about it."

"You train. That's all there is to it. Oh, and call Aunt Dee, she and Uncle..." She seemed to twitch and blur for a moment, then she was suddenly yelling, "...supposed to hurt anything, huh? Come on, you're not letting me tell them _anything_, and it's really starting to t...oh, uh, sorry." She hurriedly sat back down as she rubbed the back of her neck nervously, "Really, according to Clockwork we don't have good odds to begin with, even with the warning."

"We? Wait, you're staying here? Why aren't you going back to _your_ time?"

The little girl just looked at the floor, "Because Mom died three months ago. Vlad, he--he killed her."

--

"Dude, that's _harsh_. So what did she say after that?" Tucker took a massive bite from his hamburger as Sam simply poked at her salad while throwing an expectant look at Danny. Danny leaned forward, not that he had to in the crowded and noisy Nasty Burger.

"She said that they found her mom in the ghost zone a few weeks later, and they had to use one of my dad's old inventions to stabilize her enough to sustain a body in the human world. According to Az, it's almost as though she never left. _Almost_. She still phases through pretty much everything, including any of them when they aren't in ghost form. She didn't get much further before she kinda broke down."

"Well, _duh_, Danny. If you had to 'go ghost' just so your mom could give you a hug, how would _you_ deal with it? Plus, you told us she's all of twelve years old, even though she sounds like she's had to grow up pretty fast." Sam finished off the salad and expertly tossed the tray into one of the trash cans nearby, "So what are you going to do about this whole 'Vlad comes back a million times stronger' thing?"

"That's the thing, I don't know."

"Of course you do, Dude. We just put you in some kind of accelerated time training thing that your parents invent over the next few days, you get in a year's worth of training, and Vlad doesn't stand a chance!"

"Tucker, those only exist in cheesy sci-fi soap operas." Sam groaned.

"Lizardsphere D is _not_ cheesy! It's classic!" The other two only rolled their eyes. Tucker returned to his burger with another massive bite.

"So _really_, thought of anything?"

"Not a single idea. Every time I've beaten Vlad, either he wasn't coming at me full strength or I had help."

"Like us crashing the speeder into him that one time with Dani?"

"Exactly. But from what Az says, I'm going to have to do this one-on-one. In her timeline, anyone else who goes after Vlad just get balled up and thrown aside. According to her, I'm the only one who can still go up against Vlad and live."

"So, impossible odds against an enemy that will eventually become pretty much unstoppable, with next to zip warning...yep, that's Clockwork all right."

Danny got up from the table, tossing his half-eaten burger away as Tucker quickly inhaled the last of his, "We'll figure something out, but I don't think even the end of the world's going to stop Lancer's essay on Norse Mythology. Although, for once, I actually learned something. Did you know that the binding of the Fenris wolf actually _made_ him into the enemy of the gods that he is during Ragnarok?"

Sam smiled as she gave him a playful shove out the door, "Impressive, keep it up and you'll scrape by with more than all C's this year."

"Yeah, dude, you _seriously_ need to boost your GPA if you're even _thinking_ about college. Then again, considering the whole world knows--"

"We've been over this before, Tuck, I'm not using celebrity status to get myself in ahead of people who've actually earned it. I learned my lesson with the C.A.T.'s, thank you."

"Fine, I'm just saying--" Tucker was cut off as his PDA beeped from its spot on his belt, "Aww, dang it, I forgot I had that meeting scheduled. Now I'm gonna be late and this guy is gonna _flip_. Well, see you two later, don't get into any 'trouble', Danny!"

"_Tucker!_" Recieving a questioning glance from Sam, he shook his head, "Something between Tucker and me, nothing to worry about."

"Well, let's get over to your house. I want to meet this Azurel, and I think you still have my English notes from yesterday."

"Fine, but be prepared. We're all acting a little weird from this Plasmius thing."

"Mom! I'm home, Sam's with me!"

"We're in the kitchen, honey!" Passing through the living room, the pair came to stand, slightly open-mouthed at the contents of the room. Danny's parents, Jazz, and Azurel sat hunched over the kitchen table, or at least what _would_ have been the kitchen table if it hadn't been covered in what looked to be blueprints, sheets of scribbled notes, and at least one copy of nearly every anti-ghost weapon Danny had ever seen them build.

"Wow, I didn't even know you still _had _the Fenton Fisher laying around!" Danny began shuffling through the mess excitedly, occasionally stopping to read a hurried note about something to do with a malfunction or maintanence. Examining a pair of old Fenton Phones, he noticed Azurel seemed to be staring blankly at Sam, her mouth seemingly unhinged.

"You have violet eyes?"

Sam bristled, "Umm, yeah? Is that wierd or something?"

"It's--I--no, it's, uh, it's okay. Just surprised me for a second." She hurriedly turned back to the table when Jack let out a sharp yelp and dropped the sparking device he had been working on.

"Now Jack, you _knew_ we never got the bugs out of this one!"

"Darn it Maddie, you know I can't remember half of what we've got out here. Heck, I can barely remember what we were working on last _week_!"

"That's okay, Jack, we probably won't have a use for most of this beyond spare parts. Now, you kids have had a rough day already, so why don't you three go to Danny's room and just talk for a bit. Jack, do we still have that air mattress in the attic? I thought Azurel could sleep in Jazz's room." The four kids left the kitchen as Jack tried to remember where he'd put the mattress, and Jazz turned to Danny.

"Well, I better get started on my homework, for some reason my history professor is _obsessed_ with the Salem Witch Trials and pre-20th Century ghost-hunting methods. Well, anyway, good night Danny!" Continuing up the stairs, they finally reached Danny's room. Gratefully collapsing onto the bed, Danny groaned as Azurel took up a spot near the window and Sam fell into his computer chair.

"You know, considering she used to despise anything related to ghost-hunting, she's really become one of the family now." Sam said cheerfully. Danny just rolled his eyes and Az giggled.

"So, any ideas?"

"No." Was the tired reply.

"Okay. How about now?"

"Darn it, Sam! I've been thinking all day and I can't come up with a single thing! Vlad knows way more about his powers than I know about mine, _plus_ we don't know _why_ he comes back so powerful so we're going to have to create something _after_ he's back and blowing stuff up. He knows where we live, he's probably going to try and get his hands on the Infi-Map again, and then a whole bunch of other stuff just waiting to go wrong like always!"

"Danny, calm down! It's not going to be _that_ bad!"

"Yeah, and...uh, actually we _do_ know where he gets his new power." Both turned and stared at Azurel for a moment, "I told your parents before you got back, he calls it the Prometheus Charm, or something like that. It's this amulet that he wears and, even if you take it off, you have to _keep_ it off of him for a while before the effects even start to fade. You've got it off twice, but he always got it back pretty quickly." She hopped up onto the windowsill, rapping the glass absently with her knuckles.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting tired of just sitting around waiting for the end of the world. Tell me if anyone gets a bright idea." Sam stood up to leave, but a yell from Azurel stopped her.

"Sorry, but I almsot forgot. I don't know if Clockwork will let me show this to you, but..._here_." Fishing in her pants pocket, she pulled out a heavily creased, slightly torn, and _very_ dirty photograph. Danny and Sam both leaned in and simply stared.

Danny was obvious, his black hair longer and his eyes seemed darker than they used to be, but he was still smiling as he held a laughing red-headed toddler on his shoulders--Luke, Danny assumed. Azurel was there as well, her bright blue eyes so similar to Danny's it was a little unnerving. The woman standing next to him, however, made them both pause. She had flaming red hair and pale green eyes, although the very ends of her hair darkened to a crimson bordering on black. The playful smile she was giving the photographer was familiar, but..._not_.

"Do I know her?" He asked, pointing to the red-headed woman. Azurel fidgeted for a moment, but just as she opened her mouth, she twitched and blurred for a moment before reappearing and shaking her head at Danny.

"No, you don't know her. Accordint to Clockwork, though, you meet her in a few months given you manage to beat Plasmius. Sorry, but I can't tell you any more than that, Clockwork's orders."

"Oh, uh, okay." Danny mumbled, not taking his eyes off of the woman in the photograph. Handing the picture back to Az, he watched as the girl immediately pocketed it and phased through the floor to Jazz's room. He turned to Sam, standing in the door with a shaky smile on her face, "What's that look for?"

She hurriedly looked away from him, instead surveying one of the posters on the wall, "Look, if it's about the picture, relax. It's an alternate future, Sam, things are _supposed_ to be different."

She smiled again, before crossing to the bed and crushing him in a hug, "Don't worry, Danny. I'm fine."

"That's good to hear. Now I'd get home before your parents flip." Laughing, Sam hurried out the door, leaving Danny to fall back on his bed once more. Vlad, Azurel, the woman in the photograph, why _now?_

"Every time my life starts going to smoothly, something just _has_ to come up, doesn't it? Great, better get started on that Norse paper for Lancer."


	3. Did You Miss Me?

**I'm back! Not much to say beyond apologizing profusely and reminding everyone that I own none of these characters or any of the series that they belong to.**

**Now then, faithful readers, if you can excuse the lateness I believe you'll like this one. Enjoy the chapter, okay?**

**Chapter III: Did You Miss Me?**

_Mr. Lancer,_

_Please excuse Danny from class today, we need his help at home. Sam or Tucker can get his assignments for him, and we promise he will return to school next week. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, but we hope you understand._

_Madeline Fenton_

"_Again?_ Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing, that's every day this week! Well, I'll let it slide, but this had better be important!" Mr. Lancer signed off on the note and handed it back to Sam before turning back to his roll sheet, "Grey!"

"Present!" Valerie called back as Sam rushed back to her seat, note held in white-knuckled fingers. That picture, that stupid picture had kept her up half the night and just wouldn't leave her alone this morning. And that _woman!_ Sam thoughtfully twirled a strand of her ebony hair around her finger, then shook her head and resigned herself to taking notes for both herself and Danny.

_It's like Danny said, it's an alternate timeline._

_But what if...?_

_Clockwork said Danny hadn't met her yet, why would he lie?_

_I wonder who she is? Maybe I know her? Nah, she looked way too cheerful to be anyone I would have ever known. She actually looked kinda like my mom..._

_Okay, now I'm completely grossed out._

She shook herself again, mentally slapping herself for missing several minutes of Lancer's lecture and banished the thoughts from her head.

--

"Okay, let's take a break. I'm exhausted and Mom's got lunch." Receiving a tired nod from Az, Danny let the twin energy rings sweep across his body and return him to human form. Dropping to the lab floor, he looked around to the dents, scorch marks and even still-smoking craters that peppered the walls and floor. He and Azurel had been training nearly non-stop for the past three days, sometimes aided by his parents, and the lab was definitely coming off the worse for it. On the other hand, Az had taught him a few new moves that he knew Vlad definitely _wouldn't_ be expecting.

"Hey, you two, I have tuna sandwhiches over there, and let's see if your father remembered pickles from the store." Maddie commenced to rummaging in the refridgerator while Danny and Az both starting tearing into the sandwhiches.

"So, anything else you can tell me about where you come from?" Danny asked.

Az thought for a moment, then began speaking slowly, as though waiting for Clockwork to interrupt her again, "Well, Amity Park's gone, and so is most of Elmerton. Axion Labs is still standing, although Vlad controls everything in there and uses it to create his own personal army of hunters."

"Ghost hunters? But I thought that Vlad could just--"

"Not just ghost hunters. He's got a real army too, with tanks and guns and stuff. But yeah, he's got a ghost-hunting army too. Just in case anyone in the Ghost Zone wants to challenge his claim as ruler of both worlds. He really doesn't like fighting anymore, not unless it's you. But then..." She took a bite of the sandwhich before continuing, "He likes hurting things a lot, especiallly if they're connected to you. That's why Mom was so weak when we found her, even her _ghost_ was torn to pieces. He's--he's--" Az slammed her hand down on the table and the surface exploded in a cloud of splinters and green sparks. Danny winced.

Maddie finally broke the silence, "Hey, he _did_ get pickles!" Hoisting the jar in triumph, she fished out one for each of them, completely oblivious to the new crater in the tabletop.

"That's okay, I'm not a fan. Come on, Da--uh, Danny, let's get back to work." Shrugging to his mom, he grabbed a pickle before stomping down the stairs once again.

A few minutes later, Danny was dodging ecto-blasts thrown with the speed of a machine-gun, "How the heck did Skulker manage to beat you? _I _can barely dodge these things, and Skulker's about as agile as a three-legged pig!"

Azurel smiled and fired off another volley, "Thanks for the compliment, I think, but I was still kinda shaking off the effects of the time transfer when Skulker hit me. Cheap shot, too, right in the back of the head."

"Wait, 'time transfer'? The medallions?"

"Nope, those wear off after a while, three days max, and I needed to be here for at least a week. It was another way, a bit more complicated and resulting in the worst case of jet lag in history, but I can stay here as long as I need to until Clockwork reopens the way home." Finishing her firing pattern with a shot into the floor, she managed to disorient Danny with the dust and shrapnel. Shortly thereafter, Danny found himself pinned to the wall with a glowing fist in his face.

"Uh, I yield?" He squeaked.

Az just growled in frustration, "Come _on_, this is _kid's_ stuff I'm throwing at you and it's _working!_ Vlad's not going to play nice, I've already told you! He's going to use everything he possibly can to stack the deck against you, and he knows you've got a hero streak a mile wide. Your whole thing about saving people is handing him one massive weapon that he won't be afraid to use!"

"I do not have a 'saving people thing'!"

"Oh yeah?" She fired a weak blast past Danny's shoulder into the wall of the lab. As he turned to see what the point of _that_ had been, he noticed Jack coming down the stairs...right into the path of a hail of debris from the weakened wall.

"Dad, watch it!" Even as Jack saw the incoming chunks of the wall, Danny was already there, a weak shield batting the pieces away. As the shield faded, he was left to face a grinning Az as the completely clueless ghost hunter went about his business next to the half-way rebuilt Ghost Portal.

"_Well?_"

"Well, okay, maybe I _do_ have a slight 'saving people thing.'" Danny muttered.

"A _major_ one, actually, but nevermind. You have to be ready for Vlad's dirty tricks, and I'm winning while being comparatively _saint-like_. Let's get back to work." Danny barely got out of the way as an ecto-charged fist came at his head, and the sparring session was back on in full swing.

--

_The heavy door slides open to admit two familiar shapes, as well as a third that seems to have been brought here strictly without its consent. As the two forms materialize into Desiree and Jonathan, or Johnny 13 as he would prefer, they toss the struggling creature carelessly at the foot of the shadowed throne._

_"Delivery for ya, boss." Johnny lazily drones. Desiree shoots him a venomous glance before slowly approaching the throne where a single red eye is regarding the stranger. He appears human and is wearing naught but rags and mismatched clothing, although his skin is so pale he might pass for ghost. Desiree hauls the man up by his shirt and holds him up to the throne._

_"Another sacrifice for Your Majesty, and we can bring back many more before the day is out." Desiree purrs. The figure just waves its withered claw, and then weakly reaches out for the man. Desiree slowly pushes him in, until his face is mere inches from the fingertips of the claw. The man chooses this moment to begin screaming, but it is choked off a moment later as the claw closes over his mouth and nose. Now both Desiree and Johnny must restrain the man as he convulses violently under the shadow's skeletal touch. All too soon, however, the man falls limp and seems to fade, until he truly _is_ a ghost and is unceremoniously tossed from the chamber._

_"Weak, but I suppose there are not many heroes left, eh? You have done well, both of you, but I am still too weak. Bring me more, and do it quickly. I grew tired of this chamber long ago." The two bow and leave--Johnny a little grudgingly, but he does--and the chamber is silent again. The hand curls into a weak fist, and a careful observer might think that perhaps the hand is not quite as skeletal as before, that perhaps another thin layer of skin is stretched over the frail bones and spidering veins. Then it withdraws, back into the perpetual shadow surrounding the crumbling throne, and the dead silence of the chamber reigns._

_--_

"Danny! Az! Breakfast is ready!" Groaning with aching muscles he didn't even know he had, Danny slowly pulled himself out of bed and regarded his alarm clock as though blaming it for this whole messed-up week.

"6:32 on a Saturday morning. Figures." He grunted before attempting to completely separate himself from the bed, a seemingly impossible task before Az phased through the floor into his face.

"_Aaah!_ What--you--_don't do that!_" Az just collapsed into laughter as Danny slowly pulled himself back together. Now fully awake, he shooed Az out of the room before changing out of his pajamas and began heading downstairs. Pausing at the top of the stairs, he looked down for a moment at the top step. Then, shaking his head, he felt his body become intangible as he dropped through to the kitchen.

"Morning, Danny." Maddie called over her shoulder as he settled into a chair. Az and Jack were already there, both tearing through their own meals with extreme relish. Danny spooned out some eggs and a few pieces of bacon into his plate, then sat it down as he began hunting through the fridge for some orange juice.

"It's on the table, honey." Seeing the carton indeed sitting in the center of the table, Danny dropped into his seat and began eating.

Then his ghost sense went off.

--

"What the..." Tucker said softly, and Sam mutely shook her head. The two had been motoring across town to the Fenton's to see if they could help with Danny's training, but now were stopped in the middle of the road staring ahead with expressions resembling deer caught in an oncoming car's high-beams.

"Danny..."

--

His head hurt, but then so did the rest of him, and it felt like his leg was pinned under something weighing as much as a small car. For a moment, all he could see was darkness, and in his panic he flailed around blindly until he hit something that gave a muffled yell.

"Watch it, I _need_ that arm!" Az's indignant shout snapped Danny out of his panic and he immediately stopped his frantic motion. Although he still couldn't see a thing, he groped around until he felt someone grab his arm.

"Az, that you?"

"No, it's the Tooth Fairy and you owe me some money." Neon eyes ignited in the darkness, as well as a hand glowing ethereally. As twin energy rings swept over his body, Danny realized they were kneeling on the smashed remains of the kitchen table, and a new thought threatened panic all over again.

"_Where's Mom and Dad? Jazz!_" Az's grip on his shoulder was like a vice, forcing him to look into her eyes. "Jazz is fine, she left to do something just before you got up. I--I don't know about Gramma and Grampa, but right now you have to keep it together, okay?" He couldn't see much of her face in the weak light, but the slight tremor in her voice took most of the force out of her words. Suddenly deciding he didn't like being down here at all, he turned himself intangible and rose through a thick layer of shattered masonry and twisted metal before bursting through into a thick grey fog. Turning tangible once again, he watched his uniform take on a light grey color from what was in fact a cloud of dust and smoke. He felt the ground shift under his feet, then Az rose up beside him.

"Where's the _house?_" Was all Danny could say, even as he knew that he was _standing_ on it, in what used to be a somewhat small kitchen and dining room. As the smoke thinned, he thought he could see something moving through the rubble, but it vanished behind the haze before he could tell much.

"This isn't right, it can't be him, he came back on a Tuesday!" Az kicked a metal beam, only to have it give way and take the surrounding area with it as a gloved hand pushed through to the surface, "_Grampa!_" Az rushed in to pull Jack free of the destruction, but it was complicated by the fact that he had Maddie slung over one shoulder and was having a hard time using the other arm. Danny pitched in, however, and soon both adults were free of the rubble.

"Danny! What in the name of fudge happened!"

"Don't know, Az says it couldn't be Vlad since it's three days too early."

"So what was it? A _bomb?_" Jack continued scanning the destruction until his eyes seemed to freeze just over Danny's shoulder. Raising one shaking finger, his mouth began working furiously despite the fact that the massive ghost-hunter had been apparently muted. Turning to Az for an explanation, he saw a similar reaction only magnified several times--the girl looked like she would either faint or run screaming any second now. Turning around, his vision was bathed in crimson light before his entire body was hit by a sledgehammer moving at Mach 3. Slowly peeling himself from the ground, he heard a horribly familiar voice begin speaking.

"Hello, little badger, did you miss me?"

**And...cue dramatic music! Wait, hold on, I've got something from _Pirates of the Caribbean _that would work wonderfully here. Not a fan? Sorry, I happen to love Hans Zimmer.**

**So, Vlad's finally back and this little rollercoaster just left the rails. Join in next week...more or less...and see the epic battle between good and evil unfold!**


	4. Property Damages

**I have but one thing to say...**

**MacFie, you were right. Dang it.**

**Chapter IV: In Which Much Property is Destroyed**

"Hello, little badger, did you miss me?" Danny coughed out a mouthfull of dust as he raised his head just enough to see a gleaming pair of boots, immaculate even amid the destruction. Bone-white pants followed next, a cape blowing around one leg. Gloves as black as the boots, a jacket identical to the pants, and then his face.

_His_ face.

Vlad Plasmius, formerly known to the world as Vlad Masters and the only other half-ghost on the planet--usually, anyway--stood barely five feet in front of him with a crimson aura charged and crackling around one hand. Despite the white suit, his blue skin, glowing blood-red eyes and fangs destroyed any idea of associating him with what might be called 'good'.

"Actually, Plasmius, I was waiting to start missing you until somewhere around my 60th birthday when I got all nostalgic about the 'good ol' days'. Although, the fact that the spiky horned hair-do makes you look like a clown _is_ really funny."

"Apparently I didn't hit you hard enough, your 'witty banter' is as incessant and dull-witted as ever. Oh well, I suppose we can't have everything at once, now can we?" Another ecto-blast lifted Danny off his knees and slammed him into the remnants of the foundation. "Still," Vlad said, "I was hoping that your complete and utter annhilation would prove more entertaining than _this_. At this rate, I'll have no choice but to simply destroy Amity Park one block at a time if I want any real amusement." The next crimson shot shattered the ground under him, choking him both with dust and a wash of heat. Scrambling backwards, he managed to pull himself upright in time to avoid a blast that tore a metal beam in half.

"Please, Daniel, this is almost too easy!" Vlad brought his fist back for another attack when a flurry of green projectiles scattered across his face and chest. Waving away the assault, he rounded on his new assailant before pausing in confusion. "And just who are _you?_ You're obviously not Danielle, but I've never heard of another little girl with ghost powers."

"The name's Azurel Fenton, and don't you forget it!" Another volley of ecto-blasts exploded around him, but for all the good they did she might as well have been throwing green balls of yarn. As the explosions cleared, Vlad lunged forward and grabbed the front of Az's uniform, bringing the girl's face to within inches of his own. The close proximity seemed to break down whatever calm she had managed to gather and she began shaking violently as Vlad's other hand began sparking with energy.

"You--you're not supposed to come back for three more days. I--I remember, Dad told me it was Tuesday."

"Oh, really? Tell me, little girl, since your last name is Fenton and you're obviously related to these fools, who is your father?"

"D--Dan Fenton." She pointed a shaking finger at Danny.

"_Really?_ So I take it that you have arrived from some parallel universe, or else journeyed here from some alternate future for some reason?"

"Right in one, Vlad." The blast of green energy dissipated harmlessly against Vlad's shield, and Danny found himself with one of Vlad's gloved hands securely around his throat. Plasmius laughed as he held the two ghost fighters on either side of him, both hands now glowing crimson.

"Well then, you seem to have answered your own question. An alternate timeline is, by it's very _definition_, unique in some way from any other series of events. Perhaps I simply decided to come back earlier than I had originally planned, or maybe it was the fact that I decided to _not_ hunt down and destroy that annoying Technus on my way here. In the final analysis, it can only be said that I am, in fact, _here_ and to be perfectly honest that's all that matters." His hands suddenly flared to a painful brilliance and both Danny and Az were blown away from him by twin bolts of crimson plasma.

"Well, Daniel, it _has_ been so good to see you again. Unfortunately, even the 'leave him alive for old time's sake' argument has lost its appeal for me. Farewell, Danny Phantom, for what I most assuredly can say is the _last_ time." As Vlad approached, he split, then split again, and again, until there was a ring of Plasmius copies around Danny, all with hands bared and charging with crimson energy.

"No...no, it wasn't supposed to be this way...you're not supposed to _win_...you won't create that future, _I won't let you! You are NOT GOING TO WIN!"_ As Danny's voice reached a final yell, he gathered all of the power he could into one final, otherworldly scream aimed at the monster who was supposed to make his future a waking nightmare.

The Wail warped metal, shattered masonry, and created a shockwave that sent both Az and Jack tumbling along amid chunks of blowing plaster and pieces of the earth itself. One by one, the Vlad copies flickered and died until Danny, breathing hoarsely and heavily, collapsed to his knees in front of only one Vlad Plasmius, a shield shimmering faintly in the air between them.

"Yes, your 'Ghostly Wail' does make for quite a powerful weapon, but I have something even _better_." Putting a hand into the neck of his jacket, he fished around for a moment before emerging with a length of silver chain. Attached to the chain was an ornately carved silver pendant of some sort in the shape of an eagle, Where the eagle's breast should have been, however, there was a blood red stone, and the wings were run through with veins of blue and green. The red stone was pulsing weakly, and the image of a heart beating flashed through Danny's mind as he struggled to maintain both his ghost form and his balance on shaking legs.

"According to what information I could find on the subject, it is called the Prometheus Charm, and it is a source of near limitless energy. I could simply tell you that it raises my own abilities to rival that of a god, but..." Vlad held out his hand and several balls of light surrounded Danny, then began slowly rotating. As they started moving faster, beams of light shot between them and wove a blurred net around him until he was encased in a pulsing sphere of energy.

"But I think a live demonstration would be much more educational." Vlad's hand tightened into a fist, and Danny screamed as each of the balls fired another beam of light directly into him. No matter which way he turned, the still-spinning balls could still reach every part of him with the beams as the net began to shrink down on top of him.

"Yes, _very_ educational. Wouldn't you agree, Daniel?"

--

"Come _on_, Tucker! It's only three more blocks!" Tucker gave a weak thumbs-up before grabbing at his side again. Sam knew how he felt, nursing a stitch herself for the past two blocks. The scooters had been left nearly a mile back, neither Sam nor Tucker wanted to waste time hunting for somewhere to recharge their batteries. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now Sam wondered if they'd be of any use once they actually got to where they were going.

"You guys need a ride?" Jazz's voice was the greateast sound in the world as Sam gratefully stopped to allow the car to catch up with her. On the other side of the small green car, Tucker collapsed onto the pavement with a defeated sigh.

"What's going on?" Jazz asked as Sam threw Tucker into the backseat, then took a seat herself next to the redhead.

Sam shook her head, "No idea, but I bet it has something to do with what everybody's been saying about Vlad coming back. All we saw was a huge explosion."

"I don't like this." Jazz muttered as she hit the accelerator and the car shot off towards the pillar of smoke rising over what once was FentonWorks.

--

"So Daniel, have we learned anything yet?" Vlad allowed his fist to relax and the beams stopped slicing acroos Danny's skin. Danny collapsed as the sphere dissolved, afraid to move what felt like raw meat under his uniform.

"You--you know I--I'm a s-slow learner, Vlad." The energized fist to his temple spun him around, but he couldn't stop a quiet laugh from escaping as he turned once again to face Plasmius.

"Laughing? Why are you _laughing?_ Is it possible you've suffered some kind of brain injury? Stop it!" Vlad snapped, and the growing laughter died in Danny's throat. Picking himself up as best he could, he was privately proud that he managed to stand without needing support. Vlad smiled, baring his fangs, "Good, Daniel, very good. I approve, actually--facing death with your head up and a straight face. I like that, in fact I like it so much that I'll--_AAH!_" Danny couldn't see what was happening as a cloud of smoke and debris washed over both of them, but he could hear Vlad thrashing around and a yell that sounded like--

"Az! Az, where are you?" As the dust cleared, Danny got a good view at Vlad.

And the twelve-year-old girl wrapped around his neck and attempting to black both of his eyes.

_"Will...You...Get...OFF!" _Vlad was pulling at any part of her that he could hold, but the little girl held fast and continued pounding on him with one arm. Finally getting a grip around her neck, he pried the girl off and held her away from him with both hands already spitting sparks. Bringing his arm back, Vlad's fist burned from red to white as his smile widened into something near insane.

_"AZ!"_ The words were swallowed even as Danny shouted, as both Vlad and Azurel vanished in a blaze of energy, light, and noise that slammed Danny back into the ground and into a black silence.

--

"Did you see that? Tell me you saw that!"

"Yes, we saw it, Tucker. And that does not change the fact that Danny might need help and we are going to go in and give him help." Pulling a small blaster out of her backpack, Sam was examining the safety when Jazz spoke up, "Could you hit the button that says, 'hatch panel' on it? Thanks." Hearing a hollow _clunk_ from the back seat, Sam turned around just in time to see Tucker get hit in the face with what looked like the marriage of a ecto-gun and a hunting rifle. looking down at her own gun, barely more than an energized pistol, she tossed it on the seat in time to catch another of the odd-looking guns.

"Uh, Jazz, what _are_ these?"

"Yeah, this stuff doesn't look anything like your parent's ecto-guns." Tucker said, already poking around on the gun in his lap while rubbing his nose with the other hand.

"Oh, well, it's just some stuff I worked up for a project in class at Mary Celeste. Nothing major, but I just thought that, you know, they might work better in certain situations..." Jazz trailed off looking nervous as she slung a pack over her shoulder with a metallic jangle. Fitting some kind of hi-tech glove over one hand, she closed a hatch in the floorboards and put the back seat down again. Waving the two out of her car, Jazz hurried to the cover of an abandoned building and scanned the area before turning to Sam and Tucker.

"Okay, here's the safety, it's in 'on' position right now. Flick it that way and it's 'off', got it? There's the main trigger, and here's a secondary trigger that we don't have time to use right now. Hold the gun like this--they've got a bit more kick than Mom and Dad's stuff. Oh, and you can't just hold the trigger, one pull gets you one shot. Get all that?" Recieving two stunned nods, Jazz bit her lip and fiddled with the glove, "I know, I _know_, I'm supposed to be the nice, 'let's-talk-this-out' person in the family, but it qualified for my physics credit and it was a hands-on class, so...look, we don't have time for this." Carefully stepping out into the street, Jazz took another look around before taking off at a run for what used to be the Fenton's. Sam and Tucker followed, feet crunching on pieces of glass and cement gravel thrown out of the blast.

Finally reaching the house--what was left anyway--the three began hunting for any sign of either Danny or Az. Unfortunately, there wasn't a sign of any life among the wreckage, and the entire area had been completely flattened apart from a glassed crater in the center.

"What happened, where's Danny?"

"I don't know, maybe Plasmius...?" Tucker gestured helplessly as Sam shoved a large cement block out of the way with her boot.

"You know, for associating with Daniel, you're remarkably perceptive." Tucker and Sam raised the guns just as the world around them burned crimson. Tucker found himself flat on his back with something hard jammed into his side. Rolling over, he discovered it was in fact one of Jazz's ecto-rifles. Or at least, the _pieces_ of an ecto-rifle--the warped muzzle and bits of the stock were all he could find amid the wreckage, as well as a smoking power cell. Sitting up and trying to stop the world from spinning, Tucker suddenly realized that while part of his vision was fine, the other half was hopelessly blurred.

"Aww, _man_." Taking off his glasses, he sighed as his fingers passed cleanly through one of the frames, "This is _exactly_ why I stay on the sidelines during battles. Great, now I'm defenseless _and_ half-blind." Groping around, he felt the ground slide under his hand and found himself buried up to the elbow in a miniature landslide, a perfectly intact ecto-rifle sitting on top. Grabbing the rifle, he stood up carefully as Jazz groaned from several yards away. Looking around, he thought he saw a pale glove protruding from the wreckage. Picking his way over to the object, he found that he had been right and, from the size, it could be only one person. _Hang on, Danny, I'll get you out of here. _Unfortunately, for every handful he scraped away, two more fell in to cover it. Also, he couldn't get another urgently nagging thought out of his head.

_Where's Sam?_

--

Sam _really_ wished she weren't here right now.

Maybe it was because, at this height, a fall would break half the bones in her body, if not killing her outright. Maybe it was the fact that the only thing keeping her from that plunge was Vlad's black-gloved hand clamped on her arm like a vice, with the other ominously spitting sparks the color of fresh blood.

Maybe it was the fact that Plasmius was alive in the first place.

"Are you going to stop squirming or do I have to drop you?" Sam quickly stopped moving, simply hanging from Vlad's grip like some oversized doll as she ran through every option she could come up with. Unfortunately, most of them involved Danny or Az, and neither one was anywhere to be found. She thought she could see Tucker working on something down below, and Jazz was slowly crossing over to him.

"And what do you suppose _they_ are doing, hmm? They couldn't possibly have found something, could they?" With Jazz now helping, however, it was clear they _had_ found something and were working feverishly to raise whatever it was from the surrounding debris. As the two of them moved away and began to actually pull their find free, Sam got a clear view of a black jumpsuit and an all-too-familiar emblem that belonged to...

"Danny? _Danny! Danny, I'm up--" _A bolt of pain flashed down her arm and across her body, setting whatever it touched on fire. As soon as it began it was over, leaving her gasping as Vlad hauled her up to within an inch of his nose.

"I don't think you quite understand the situation, girl. I don't _want_ Daniel up here right now, I want _you_ and _only_ you, do you understand?" When Sam mutely nodded, Vlad frowned, "I expect a 'yes sir' or 'no sir' when I ask a question from now on, _do you understand me?_" The question was accompanied by another wave of pain and fire, longer this time. Sucking breath through clenched teeth, Sam glared at Vlad, willing those burning crimson eyes to break under her violet gaze. Unfortunately, Vlad's gaze at this range was terrifying and she found herself quickly averting her gaze. Setlling on his immaculately trimmed goatee, she couldn't resist one last shot.

"You're not exactly hidden. If anybody looks up, they'll see you and then Danny _will_ be up here whether you want him or not."

"A very good point, my dear, but for the fact that I've decided this will not be the main event as originally intended. Simply an exhibition match where I show Daniel just how outmatched he is and just how much he stands to lose by resisting me. And what better way to show him than by recreating his worst nightmare?" One of Vlad's fingers traced a line down her cheek, and if he hadn't threatened to drop her she would have slapped him across the face, "I may not have taken the time to hunt for Technus, Skulker, or any of those other inept fools, but I _did_ have a very educational conversation with Nocturne on my way here."

"Nocturne doesn't do nightmares, he told us so."

"Ah, but only half-right I'm afraid. True, Nocturne can't _feed_ off of nightmares, but he _does_ have access to them. Now what would a selfless, heroic teenage boy such as Daniel have as his worst nightmare? Any suggestions, Samantha?"

"Get lost."

"Now, what was it I told you to say?"

"Get lost _sir_." Another wave of pain burned through her, longer this time, and it didn't cut off like the others, instead fading into a low ache as Vlad began speaking again.

"Maybe I've picked the wrong person to be having this discussion with--I'm sure Foley wouldn't be half as disrespectful. Oh well, I suppose it doesn't matter anyway. For I'm sure you realize that Daniel wasn't the only one I had placed under surveillance. I know all about his family, as well as yours and Mr. Foley's. I know, for instance, that your great-grandfather did not survive the occupation of Poland and your great-grandmother only survived by fleeing to America. Now then, let's _try_ to be a bit more cooperative, shall we?" The ache rose back to an irritable buzz as Vlad smiled, in reality merely baring his fangs, "Or else I'm going to make Treblinka look like summer camp."

The world around her flashed crimson and Sam screwed her eyes shut, fully expecting another jolt of energy. It never came, however, and she slowly opened her eyes to see Vlad frowning at something below as he muttered a string of curses.

"In case you haven't noticed, this ecto-shield is quite a bit stronger than those I used to create. Good luck getting through, and even th--"

The world lit up again, this time with two flashes in quick succession accompanied by a shrill electric scream. Then she was falling, and even as she felt the wind whipping her hair around she couldn't help but think that this couldn't really be happening, that this was just another one of Vlad's tricks. Feeling a pair of gloved hands close on her arms, she looked up fully expecting to meet Vlad's evil fanged glare once again. Instead...

"_Danny!_" He flashed her a quick smile before he shot forward, narrowly missing a crimson blast of energy. There was another explosion overhead, accompanied by the percussive crack of thunder. Twisting around to see over Danny's shoulder, she could see him hovering unsteadily in midair before a blinding flash of energy washed out her vision. Blinking rapidly to clear her eyes, she was vaguely aware that Danny had stopped and they were now half-hidden behind a pile of debris at the edge of the destruction.

"Sam? Sam, are you okay?" Danny gently forced her to look at him, his face a mask of concern as he examined her face. Sam found her vision filled with his neon green eyes, and the reality of the past several minutes crashed over her.

_"Do I look okay to you? While you were taking it easy down here, that screwed-up..._thing_ up there was going to kill me! Do you have any idea what I've just been through? He was...he..."_ Sam jabbed at her arm, still burning from the repeated shocks. When Danny's face just registered blank confusion, she grabbed a fistful of his jumpsuit and started shaking him. When she opened her mouth to continue yelling at him, however, all that would come out was a strange choking sound. After several more attempts at speech were similarly aborted, she gave up and let her head sink into his shoulder while giving him an ineffectual punch in the arm.

"It's alright, Sam, I'm here." It sounded lame even as he said it, but what else could he say? He wrapped his arms around her as best he could while edging around to get a better view of what was going on back in the destruction site.

It looked like Az had shaken off the last of her disorientation and was now aiming the ecto-rifle Danny had passed off to her. Jazz was firing off her wierd electric glove-thing at regular intervals, while Tucker seemed to be content with hiding behind her and poking around on his PDA. As Danny watched, Az and Jazz (_that would be funny any other time,_ he thought) fired together and a large explosion answered from midair. Looking up, he caught the figure just before it collided with the ground in a spectacular explosion of dust and debris. _Was that Vlad? Wait, did we just _win_?_

The ground exploded in a crimson bloom of fire and lightning. _Never mind._ He noticed that Jazz's car was safely parked a little over a block away. He eased up onto his feet, using a bit of power to keep from dropping Sam in the process. _If I can just get her away from this..._

"So, had enough yet?" Jazz called across the ruins. Vlad's response was a scream of rage that rattled her teeth, but he did nothing when Jazz raised the glove on her arm. A shameless rip-off from one of her dad's old inventions, the glove extracted some of the energy from any neural network it was attached to and ramped it up to the force of a lightning strike before discharging at whatever was stupid or unlucky enough to get in the way. Unfortunately, the technology was based off of the infamous "ecto-skeleton" energy system, and repeated uses had the effect of robbing the user of motor control in the affected area, closely followed by extreme pain and, eventually, a temporary shutdown of the peripheral nervous system. Of course, Vlad didn't know that, but Jazz already couldn't feel her arm and knew that a few more discharges and she wouldn't be able to fire the weapon at all without somehow switching it to the other arm.

Azurel nudged Jazz in the arm, then flashed her a grin before bracing the ecto-rifle under one arm and charging the other until it was spitting green and white sparks.

"How...how did you..._what did you do?_" Vlad screamed, "_I have ultimate power, I should have destroyed you all in a heartbeat, yet you continue to live! How--Do--You--Live?_"

"Pretty simple, really. You're a butt-ugly, crazed-out cheesehead nutjob who thinks he actually stands a chance against my dad, my family, and my friends." Az shot back. She fired the rifle and let the ecto-blast go at the same time, the combined impact knocking Vlad back to the ground. Jazz grinned to herself. _Well, it wasn't easy, but we did it._

Then the world turned over on itself, and she found herself half-buried into a pile of wreckage, her chest throbbing painfully and a long skid-mark burned into the rubble. Vlad picked himself up, breathing heavily as the crimson fire faded around him. As Jazz struggled to her feet, Az stepped between them, hands out and charging with the ecto-rifle slung over one shoulder.

"You want to hurt somebody? Just try me."

"Just...just go. Get out of my sight." Vlad sighed as he waved them off with one hand.

"Wait, _huh?_"

" I said _LEAVE!_" Both girls cringed at Vlad's command, but it had a force behind it that made Jazz decide to take Vlad up on his offer and think about consequences later. Az apparently came to the same conclusion and backed up to stand beside the red-head, although she maintained the charge on her hands.

"Uh, Jazz, I don't mean to interrupt, but you're kinda standing on me." Jazz looked down and, sure enough, Tucker was almost directly below her and almost completely buried in the wreckage. Jazz and Az worked together to haul him up, then continued backing up as Vlad glared at them. Suddenly, he brought his hand out in a slashing motion across his body and the ground around them exploded in a wave of debris and energy.

"Do try moving _faster_, would you? I said to _leave_, not _loiter around here staring!_" The command was stronger this time, and Jazz turned and began running even before she completely registered what she was doing. She crossed the block to her car in what felt like all of three seconds, yanked the door open and threw herself inside while attempting to simultaneously twist the keys to start the engine. From the backseat, she heard Danny's yell something, but it didn't register as she attempted to put the car in gear, succeeded only in killing the engine, and hurriedly restarted it while muttering several words that would have earned her two weeks in her room had either of her parents heard.

"_Jasmine!_"

"_What?_"

"Jazz, I asked where Dad went. Also, what the heck is going on and why is everybody acting like we're about to get fried?" Somehow, Danny's voice managed to calm her, at least enough that she could actually get the car in gear and get it to an even, steady purr.

"I--I don't know. He told us to leave and suddenly all I wanted to do was put as much distance between him and me as possible. A-and as for Dad, I think that's him right over there with Mom." Sure enough, the kids could see Jack struggling out from behind the edge of a building, Maddie riding securely over one shoulder. Rolling down the window, Jazz frantically waved him over as the air around the ruins began to warp and spark with crimson fire.

Jack finally reached the car and transferred Maddie to Danny before squeezing into the back as well. Looking into the rear-view mirror, Jazz could see her mom carefully positioned so her head was resting in Jack's lap and she stretched out across Danny and on into Sam. Jazz bit her lip, thinking that her mom had always been the more capable of the two ghost-hunters, and it somehow wasn't fair that she was the one out cold while Jack cradled his injured arm. Shaking her head, she floored the accelerator and shot down the street, passing the destruction as she did so. The very air was now taking on a crimson glow and the earth shook hard enough to rattle the car as they passed through. Looking back, she saw the sparks give way to true bolts of crimson lightning, flashing through the air and into neighboring buildings hard enough to knock of bricks and bits of plaster and siding.

Five minutes later, the familiar sign of "Now Leaving Amity Park" flashed by and Jazz eased off of the gas. Letting the car roll to a rattling halt in the shoulder, she turned the key off and twisted around to look in the backseat. Sam was staring blankly out the window, one hand gripping the door hard enough to turn her knuckles white. The other hand was similarly wrapped around Danny's, although if he felt any discomfort from the crushing grip he didn't show it. Her father, on the other hand, looked as though the world had just ended. He was running his hands through her hair with his good arm, but it seemed more of a mindless gesture than anything providing real comfort. As he let one finger trail around her ear, she twitched once, then again, before weakly slapping his hand away and mumbling something indecipherable about tomatoes.

The effect was immediate, as the face of every Fenton present lit up with smiles. After grinning like complete idiots for a few moments, Jazz twisted back around and opened the door. Stepping out onto the highway, it struck her that the road was nearly deserted, save for a lone motorcycle powering down the road.

_The world is ending and Amity Park doesn't care. They probably think it's just one more bit of wierdness associated with having Danny living there._ Even as Jazz watched, however, her thoughts on Amity Park's citizen's became moot as the sky lit up with a brilliant crimson flash. Blinking away the painful light, she saw a pillar of light reaching into the sky, lighthing surrounding it and looking like Dante Alighieri's idea of a tornado. As she looked down, she felt her hand rise unbidden to her face.

Amid the otherworldly twilight surrounding the twisting column, a surreally mundane orange stain was flickering across the sky. Amity Park was burning.

She was dimly aware of the others getting out of the car, and she could distantly feel Danny's hand on her shoulder, but her entire world was becoming one big nightmare. She couldn't help but think that she would soon snap out this dream to find one of Nocturne's dream-helmets shattered around her, but at the same time a part of her realized that this _was_ real, that the only home she had ever known was a flattened square of destruction in the middle of a city that was being incinerated before her eyes.

"Come on, guys, let's get out of here." Az's voice sounded small and out-of-place after all that had happened, but Jazz's brain latched onto that small voice and she numbly turned around and re-entered the vehicle. Slowly, the car filled up once more, with Az finally settling in next to her and wedging one of Tucker's PDA's into a cupholder.

"I know a place we can go, and here's the directions. If I'm right, Clockwork's going to have us some help on the way. We'll meet 'em there." She prodded Jazz in the arm, then jerked her head out to the open road. Looking at the little girl, her niece from another time, Jazz slowly nodded, then restarted the engine and slowly picked up speed.

Behind them, the city burned.

**Well, I know it took an ungodly amount of time to get something new up, but you have no idea what our summer's been like. Well maybe you do, if you've moved recently. At any rate, feel free to drop me a PM, tell me what you thought of the chapter, the story, or my increasingly erratic posting schedule.**

**For now, I must take my leave of you fine people and go to bed. ****Good night.**

**--NullChronicler--**


	5. Meetings and Minds

**Well, it's a year or so after the last one, and after two rewrites I still think a few spots could use a bit more work, but I finally decided "heck with it" and posted this. Two more chapters left, if I've got that right, so don't worry about me leaving this unfinished. **

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter V: Of Meetings and Minds**

"We're here." Jazz said as the car slid into the lamp-lit parking lot of the deserted shopping center. From the passenger seat, Az mumbled something and slipped back into sleep. Jazz yawned herself as she looked around the car, noting that Danny seemed to be the only one awake besides her. Sam had rolled over during the night and was now curled up against Danny, pressing him in turn against Tucker, while Jack's face was slightly flattened against the window. Turning back to the front seat, she watched as the neon green lights on the dashboard changed from 4:02 to 4:03.

"Hungry." Danny said softly from the backseat. Jazz nodded--her stomach was protesting as well, and the car's needle was settled firmly on a line just above "E". Driving through three states while stopping only when absolutely necessary had that effect.

"Hey Az, wake up." Jazz nudged the girl, who groaned and rolled away from her, "Az, we're here. C'mon, wake up."

"Five more minutes, Mom." Jazz rolled her eyes and poked Az hard in the ribs. The little girl yelped and jerked around to bring a glowing fist to within inches of Jazz's face. After a moment, however, the girl relaxed and let the energy fade, "Don't do that." She muttered, before suddenly sitting up and looking around excitedly, "We're here! Hey, everybody wake up, we're--!"

"Alright, _alright_, not so loud." Danny hissed. Az immediately quieted down, before squealing and starting to gesture wildly out the front window. Jazz tried to quiet her, but too late--the rest of the back seat was stirring as Az threw the door open and rushed out into the darkened parking lot.

"...mmm, whazzgoin on?" Sam muttered, rubbing her eyes as Tucker stretched out on Danny's other side and accidentally elbowed him in the ribs. Only Jack kept snoring, his face obliviously pressed against the window as Maddie opened her eyes and immediately pressed a hand to the side of her head with a groan.

"Don't know, Az ran off somewhere over by that, uh...that..." Jazz gestured helplessly out of the window at what had once been a peacefully deserted lot. The space in front of them was now twisting and warping, patches of white and blue light occasionally flashing through. Even as they sat transfixed, the warped mass of air exploded in a blinding flare of blue light.

Blinking to clear their vision, the inhabitants of the car--minus Jack, who continued snoring--strained to see anything in the once-more darkened lot. As Jazz scanned the blackness, a neon green light ignited, followed by a torch of purest violet. Cautiously opening her door, Jazz slowly stepped out of the car. Immediately, the green light brightened and she had to cover her eyes from the intensity.

"Jazz? Jazz, is that you?" The voice was so familiar that Jazz dropped her hands and looked again toward the two lights. The green light dimmed, but all she could see was the vague outline of two people. She stepped out around the door, still straining to make out something to identify the strangers, when Az screamed from somewhere off to her right.

"_Momma! Daddy!" _The green light wavered drunkenly as Azurel all but tackled the figure holding it aloft.

"Azurel! Oh, I'm so glad you're alright." The figure with the violet light said.

Az groaned, "Mom, I told you I like Az better."

"I'm your mother and I named you, I think I should be able to call you what I want," The figure replied, "And please don't yell, honey. Whatever Clockwork did, my head feels like Ember's been playing a concert inside." Jazz was vaguely aware of a car door opening, then Danny had come around to the front of the car, his hand weakly lit with a green light identical to the stranger. Sam was right behind him, still rubbing at one eye as she tried to wake up.

"Who are you?" Jazz managed to get out, torn between the urge to approach the figures and an equally powerfully desire to put at least three ecto-weapons between herself and these people. Well, maybe just two since Az _did_ say they were her parents...

"Sorry, completely forgot, you guys have no idea who we are. Well, why don't we go somewhere that has actual light and we can answer all of your questions. Well, most of them, Clockwork's orders...heh, you know how he is." The green-light figure said sheepishly.

Jazz sighed--every one of the buildings bordering the lot appeared to have been abandoned years ago, and even the few remaining light-posts were barely flickering.

"You know, there's a place right across the street with the lights on." The violet figure said. The group turned and looked--sure enough, there was a building with flourescent lights ablaze, a neon sign proclaiming "All-Night Diner" in faded neon.

A few moments and three terrified employees later, and they had the building to themselves. Jazz had been only slightly surprised that the green light had belonged to a clearly older version of her little brother. His uniform looked largely unchanged, although he had certainly filled out in the intervening years. His hair was longer, trailing down his neck and threatening to fall into eyes which had darkened from the bright neon green she knew to a brilliant emerald shine.

The other person however...

Her skin was pale, a tinge of blue shining through under close inspection. Her hair was a brilliant shade of indigo as it fell around her face and to her shoulders, a pair of amethyst eyes to match. Instead of any uniform, she was wearing what appeared to be a battered green t-shirt and torn jeans. Her feet appeared bare, but Jazz guessed that didn't affect her much as she floated an inch or so from the ground.

"So, uh, I don't want to be rude or anything, but who are you?" Sam asked.

The woman gave her an odd look for a moment, but finally grinned and responded, "Well, don't worry about being rude. I know _I_ wouldn't be very civil if all this was dumped on me. I'm Marilyn, by the way." The older Danny looked at her in a mixture of disbelief and amusement for a moment, then leaned over and whispered something in her ear.

"Yes, I know _exactly_ whose name that is. Why do you think I picked it?" She responded with a wider smile than before.

"Wait, so that's _not_ your real name?" Tucker asked.

"Well, of course it's not my real name. If I told you my real name, you'd know who I was within all of five minutes. Maybe less. After all, I _am_ pretty unique." She suddenly shot forward, passing through the table they were gathered around to stop in front of Sam, "Speaking of unique, I don't think I've ever seen another person with eyes like yours."

"What is it with you people and my eyes?" Sam snapped, "I know violet's not a normal color, why do you think I--"

"No, no, it's not that," Marilyn interrupted, "It's just that only one eye is purple. Your right eye is bright green."

Every face in the room was now focused on Sam as she reached for her bag, realized she didn't have it, and bolted to a mirror set next to the diner's front door.

"It's...no, NO! Oh this is perfect, those were...this is just great." She finished with a groan.

"Sam, what's going on?" Danny asked.

"Oh, nothing, I just lost one of my two-hundred dollar designer contacts, and now I either have to toss the other one or go through my immediate future looking like some crazy person who mixed food coloring with her eye-drops."

"Hey, relax. Do you need 'em to see?" Tucker asked. Sam mutely shook her head, now examining the linoleum. "Well, since we're currently on the run from Danny's super-powerful arch-nemesis and our chances of victory already look as dismal as usual, don't worry about it."

"Thanks, Tucker, that really helped," Sam said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Speaking of Vlad, we kinda blew it back there," Danny said, "But I guess you probably know that by now," He finished, turning to the older Danny.

The older halfa nodded, "Clockwork told us the situation before sending us here. From what he said, he's a lot more powerful than he was in our timeline, and it sounds like he's already figured out how to work the Charm to produce fear."

"Fear?" Jazz asked, her voice slightly slurred as she lay draped over a table.

"Yes, fear," the older Danny responded, "What you probably don't know is that the Prometheus Charm doesn't just elevate power. It also creates the illusion that the wearer really _is_ some kind of god via mental and emotional manipulation of anyone around. The effect that Vlad seems to use with the most ease is fear, pure and simple fear of the wearer. Now, there's all sorts of other stuff about this thing that we could tell you, but it's not really important for the immediate future, Clockwork does it better and we don't have much time to begin with."

"We don't have any time _at all!_" Danny exploded, rising angrily to face his older double, "Vlad _destroyed_ Amity Park! Destroyed, gone, _dead!_"He probably would have gone on in this vein for some time had not he felt Sam's hand tugging on his arm.

Sighing, he allowed her to tug him back into his seat, still breathing heavily. The older Danny gave the younger a sad smile.

"Don't think I don't know how you feel. You're forgetting, we went through the same thing in our universe, and I know how much it hurts to see something like that happen to your home." He stood and stared out into the parking lot, "Clockwork is being unusually blunt about this, though. Your Vlad _has_ to be beaten, and it has to be _now_." He turned back to the group at the tables, "So that means we can't just hide and wait for an opportunity to show up."

"Tucker." The techno-geek looked up from his PDA as the older Danny spoke, "I need you to get a satellite picture of these coordinates." He rattled off a string of numbers as Tucker dutifully punched them into the handheld computer, then:

"Good, they're still here in this timeline." Danny looked at Jazz, "You up for another long road-trip?"

"Mmmyeah," Jazz mumbled, convincing nobody as she pushed herself up on one arm, "But I have a question."

"I'll answer if I can," the older Danny answered.

"Well, calling you 'Old Danny' and calling this one," she jerked her thumb at her brother, "Calling him 'Young Danny' is gonna get old pretty quick. What else can we call you?"

He thought for a moment, "Dan," he finally answered. Marilyn's brows rose, but Dan stalled her question with a wave of his hand, "I know, I know, but the only real alternative is Daniel, and that's what _he _calls me, so it's out of the question. Anyway, that's not important. Danny, can you drive your sister's car?"

Danny shrugged, "I guess, it's not a stick. Fair warning though, I only completed Driver's Ed two weeks ago."

Dan gave a humorless laugh, "I think rear-ending somebody on the freeway is the least of our worries. Now let's go, that flower patch up in Massachusetts isn't going to do us any good just sitting there."


End file.
